• Thai GP: What does Marc Márquez need to be world champion in Thailand?
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The Spanish Maverick Viñales (Yamaha YZR M 1) was the fastest in the first free practice session of the MotoGP Grand Prix of Thailand, where the world leader, also the Spanish Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda RC 213 V) literally jumped for the air to suffer a fall.

Márquez, who became leader already in the fourth round of the session with more than a second of advantage over his immediate pursuer and in the fifth he lowered his personal record to put it at 1: 31,187, a heavy blow was made that made him go directly to the circuit clinic, although it was on his own foot.

In those first minutes of the session, after the Repsol Honda team leader were the two official Yamaha drivers, the Italian Valentino Rossi and the Spanish Maverick Viñales, who stood at eight tenths of a second, although there was still almost half an hour of training ahead.

The Spaniard Pol Espargaró (KTM RC 16), who received authorization from the Medical Directorate of the championship to contest the workouts just ten days after being operated on the fracture of the distal radius of his left arm, already at the first change, in the Five first laps, he was among the top ten in the category, although still with a long way to go, he finished in thirteenth place.

Gradually, Márquez's rivals were shaking and on his fourteenth lap Viñales managed to get a little more than four and a half tenths of a second from the Repsol Honda rider, with the Frenchman Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha YZR M 1), third but almost seven tenths of a second (0.674).

The Italian Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Desmosedici GP19), the only one who can "shadow" Márquez on his way to his sixth MotoGP world title, did not start very well and he could be seen with a lot of work in his workshop with the engineers not to move from sixth place to almost a second of the Repsol Honda driver, although in the end it was fourth to 18 thousandths of a second.

Things went wrong for those moments to the Spanish Spaniard Alex Rins, who needed the assistance of the assistance of the circuit to try to reach his workshop on one of the Suzuki GSX RR with technical problems and on his return to the track he could continue working to finish eleventh, out of the second direct classification at the moment.

Six minutes to the end and on curve seven, the news of the session came, with the spectacular and ugly fall of Marc Márquez - tenth of the season -, after having overcome Pol Espargaró and suffering a "high side" (jump in the air).

It was difficult for Márquez to recover from the "knock" and one who was reluctant, went by his own foot to the ambulance to go to a medical examination at the circuit clinic.

Meanwhile, the assists of the circuit removed the motorcycle from the track, seriously damaged, with the literally broken rear suspension system, like the rear wheel and numerous components of it.

They had jumped all the alarms and in the faces of all the members of the Repsol Honda team you could see the concern about the possible seriousness of the mishap led by their pilot, while on the track Fabio Quartararo climbed to the first place, surpassing by just 17 thousandths from second to Spanish.

Just a couple of minutes the joy lasted for the Frenchman, who saw how Maverick Viñales beat him to make the best time, 1: 30,979, with Quartararo at 191 thousandths and Márquez at 208 thousandths of a second and with a Dovizioso much faster in the fourth place, 18 thousandths of a second from Spanish.

Rossi finished in sixth place with Joan Mir as the best driver of the Suzuki GSX RR in the ninth position, his partner Alex Rins eleventh, while the Espargaró brothers, Aleix (Aprilia RS-GP) was twelfth, and Pol thirteenth.

Tito Rabat (Ducati Desmosedici GP18) got the sixteenth position and Jorge Lorenzo (Repsol Honda RC 213 V) could not pass the nineteenth place, 1.8 seconds behind the leader of the race.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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